A former Semiahmoo Peninsula teacher who pleaded guilty in 2005 to collecting images of exploited children has admitted to once again possessing illicit material.
George Heinz Kraus pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in Surrey Provincial Court Thursday morning.
The plea was entered less than three weeks before the White Rock senior was scheduled to be tried on charges of possessing and accessing child pornography.
The charges arose after officers with the Integrated Child Exploitation Unit executed a search warrant on a White Rock home in June 2012, following a tip “suggesting (Kraus) was in possession of child-pornography material,” Staff Sgt. Bev Csikos told Peace Arch News in February.
The tip came from another agency, and a police investigation in another jurisdiction is ongoing, Csikos said.
Kraus taught at White Rock Elementary for 13 years and was in his second year at Laronde Elementary when he resigned in March 2005, shortly after his arrest that month for possession of child pornography. That arrest followed the discovery of some 27,000 images on two home computers.
In that case, Kraus was handed a 14-month conditional sentence followed by 12 months’ probation, and his name was added to the national sex-offender registry – a move his lawyer at the time had argued was unfair, citing in part psychological testing that showed Kraus was a low risk to reoffend.
Kraus told PAN at that time that he didn’t believe he was doing wrong by possessing the pictures, because the depicted children were all from Russia and Ukraine.
“It’s not hurting anyone… they’re all overseas,” Kraus had said.
This week, Kraus declined to speak with PAN outside court.
“I got in trouble for talking to you guys last time,” he said.
Thursday, prosecutor Bev Lane asked Judge Ellen Gordon to order pre-sentence and psychological reports for Kraus.
He is due back in court on Feb. 19, 2014.